Erie motorist gets prison, license ban in crash with motorcycle

This is a Feb. 2012 file photo of an accident scene involving motorcyclist Tori L. Scofield. Erie Police traffic investigators said Shauna M. Casler drove her SUV (not shown) through a yellow light at the intersection of Broad Street and the Bayfront Connector in Erie, colliding with Scofield's motorcycle (shown here) on Feb. 28. Scofield later had to have her left leg amputated. CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

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Tori L. Scofield, who once enjoyed riding her motorcycle, struggles these days to get around her house and care for her two children.

"Our happiness has turned into sadness and depression," Scofield, seated in a wheelchair, told a judge on Tuesday. "My healing is always going backward rather than forward.

"I can't find any closure."

Scofield, 35, lost her left leg in an accident on Feb. 28.

A motorist in a Ford Expedition went through a yellow light and turned left into Scofield's Kawasaki Vulcan at Broad Street and the Bayfront Connector in Erie.

The motorist, Shauna M. Casler, 30, should not have been behind the wheel. She was driving with a suspended license, the result of about 10 prior traffic violations.

Scofield might never again be able to walk on her own.

Casler will not be allowed to drive for nearly a decade.

As Scofield sobbed and hugged her 16-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter, Erie County Judge John Garhart on Tuesday sentenced Casler to nine to 23 months in the Erie County Prison and five years of probation and banned her from driving for seven years.

The loss of Casler's ability to drive "will serve as a reminder, every day of her life, that something has been taken from her," Garhart said.

He also ordered Casler to pay $450,000 in restitution, for Scofield's medical bills.

The sentence was in the standard range of the state sentencing guidelines for the third-degree felony of accidents involving death or injury while not properly licensed. Casler in September pleaded guilty to that count and two summary traffic violations.

The main charge was a felony because Casler was driving with a suspended license at the time of the crash, in which she was headed north on Broad Street and was turning left on the Bayfront Connector. Scofield was heading south. The accident happened shortly after 3 p.m.

Garhart rejected the request of Assistant District Attorney Mark Richmond, who wanted a sentence in the aggravated range. The maximum sentence for a third-degree felony is seven years in state prison. Richmond said the seriousness of the injuries and Casler's prior problems with driving with an invalid license warranted a stiffer punishment.

Garhart said he considered Casler's guilty plea and the circumstances of the case. While emphasizing the severity of Scofield's injuries, Garhart said Casler would have likely faced no serious charges had she been properly licensed.

The case "would be an accident, pure and simple, had not the defendant been driving without a license," Garhart said.

"Everyone is devastated," he said. "Both sides want justice."

About 30 people filled the courtroom -- half of them on Scofield's side of the gallery and half on Casler's. Casler turned toward Scofield and the victim's family as she apologized.

Casler, of the 400 block of East Avenue, said she was picking up her children from school when she struck Scofield's motorcycle. Casler said she had lost her job as a nurse because of the crash.

"If I could take it back, I really would," she said. "The anger that you feel, I can appreciate it. I am very sorry."

Several feet away, Scofield spoke at length from her wheelchair. She said the accident had crushed her physically and caused her family to fall apart emotionally. She said she planned to undergo more surgery so she could get fitted for a prosthetic leg, but she wondered whether her pain would ever subside.

"I feel I have no purpose," she said.

"I do not hate Shauna Casler," Scofield said, her children at her side. "But she had no business being on the street that day.

"She has taken my life away from me, plastic leg or not. My kids are suffering, like they have no legs, too."